Members of Bellevue Hospital staff wear protective clothing as they demonstrate how they would receive a suspected Ebola patient on October 8, 2014 in New York City. If the patient was confirmed to be carrying the deadly virus the person would be sent to an isolation unit for treatment. The first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, Liberian Thomas Duncan, has died at a Dallas hospital, Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital said. less

Members of Bellevue Hospital staff wear protective clothing as they demonstrate how they would receive a suspected Ebola patient on October 8, 2014 in New York City. If the patient was confirmed to be carrying ... more

Photo: Spencer Platt, Spencer Platt/Getty Images

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A member of Bellevue's Hospital staff wears protective clothing during a demonstration on how they would receive a suspected Ebola patient on October 8, 2014 in New York City. If the patient was confirmed to be carrying the deadly virus the person would be sent to an isolation unit for treatment. The first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, Liberian Thomas Duncan, has died at a Dallas hospital, Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital said. less

A member of Bellevue's Hospital staff wears protective clothing during a demonstration on how they would receive a suspected Ebola patient on October 8, 2014 in New York City. If the patient was confirmed to be ... more

Photo: Spencer Platt, Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Image 3 of 3

Ebola anxiety increasing along with cases

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Fears about the deadly disease Ebola went into overdrive Wednesday, when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that a nurse infected with the illness traveled by air the day before she reported symptoms. Growing concerns about the potential spread of Ebola in the U.S. led President Barack Obama to cancel a planned trip to Bridgeport, where he was to campaign for Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.

Though there's no evidence that Ebola has hit the Nutmeg State, Connecticut health care workers are trying to make sure they're ready if disaster strikes.

All 29 hospitals in the state have submitted a detailed Ebola preparedness checklist, developed by the CDC, to the state. The checklist asks hospitals whether they've accomplished such tasks as training all employees on how to identify signs and symptoms of Ebola and how to avoid infection. Also, on Tuesday, more than 120 health care workers attended a statewide briefing presented by the Connecticut Hospital Association on Ebola and Enterovirus D68, the respiratory illness that has sickened children throughout the country.

Hospital association spokeswoman Michele Sharp said the state's hospitals are ready to handle an Ebola case, should one arrive in Connecticut.

"Hospitals have been preparing for Ebola virus for the past few months," she said in an email. "These preparations have included reviews of policies and procedures, actively communicating with and training staff, and using exercises, simulations, and test cases that have allowed hospitals to probe for any weaknesses. Hospitals prepare for all types of emergencies. Every hospital has plans, supplies, and equipment to detect and care for patients with infectious diseases, and hospitals have routine drills to address situations such as infectious disease outbreaks."

The hospitals' preparations have taken on higher importance in light of allegations -- reported on The Dallas Morning News website -- that workers at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital didn't wear hazardous material protection suits for two days while treating Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan, of Liberia. There are also claims that staff at the hospital were improperly trained to handle Ebola. Duncan, the first person in the U.S. with the disease, died last week.

Two health care workers who treated Duncan have now been diagnosed with Ebola. On Wednesday, the CDC announced that one of the workers flew on Frontier Airlines flight 1143 from Cleveland to Dallas/Fort Worth on Monday -- a day before she showed up at the hospital with a low-grade fever and was isolated. The CDC is looking to talk to all 132 passengers who were on the flight. Previously, the woman had traveled from Dallas/Fort Worth to Cleveland on Frontier flight 1142 on Friday.

Dembry was the keynote speaker at the Connecticut Hospital Association briefing. She said in a Wednesday phone interview that the most important thing doctors and nurses can do is review a patient's travel history to see if they have been to any of the countries where Ebola has been rampant. Dembry was quick to point out that the list doesn't yet include the United States, and is mostly limited to countries in West Africa. Even people with symptoms who have been to an affected country might not have Ebola, so further testing is usually needed.

"There are a lot of diseases that present this way," she said.

For instance, flu has many of the same symptoms, including high fever. Dembry said Ebola concerns make getting a flu shot more important than ever this season.

"Also, 30,000 people a year die from flu," she said.

Like Sharp, Dembry said Connecticut is working hard to get out in front of the Ebola crisis. Last week, Malloy declared a public health emergency and empowered the state health department to quarantine those infected or believed to be infected with the illness. Though rumors surfaced Tuesday of a case of Ebola at Norwalk Hospital, those reports were quickly debunked.